Blog 4 – Analysis of Terrestrial Radio and Online Music Radio (Sara Hancock)

    Within Andrew Bottomley’s fifth chapter entitled, “Hang the DJ? Music Radio and Sound Curation in the Algorithmic Ages” in his book Sound Streams, the author compares the elements present within the online music radio platform, Pandora and terrestrial radio stations. To expand, Bottomley maintains that in both radio formats, listeners are provided with limited musical choice and control over stations. Pandora and terrestrial platforms are unable to skip, replay, or play a song more frequently, demonstrating the reduced control given to radio medium listeners. Further, both medium forms afforded listeners a reduced ability to provide feedback and alter the music presented; for Pandora users could give songs a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down,” in addition to a third option of telling the system that “I’m tired of this track” to hear the song more, less, or not for a while, respectively; in relation to terrestrial radio, listeners may change the station If they dislike the song though, this can only be done approximately two dozen times, or equivalent to the number of terrestrial broadcasters in the United States. 

    Ultimately, while online radio sources such as Pandora are dissimilar to historic modes of terrestrial radio in the sense of their selection of music methodology and blindness to popularity, the platform remains a mediated form of the medium contemporarily. 


References

 

Bottomley, A. (2020). Sound streams: A cultural history of radio-internet convergence. 

    Michigan, US: University of Michigan Press.



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